A Mother's Tale
by Salmander06
Summary: Garrus visits his mom and she has an intersting story to tell.
1. The Visit

Author Note: Like to point out a few things before you read this story. This takes place inbetween ME2 and ME3. Garrus is in a relationship with Shepard and that her background is Earthborn/Sole Survivor. Also this is my first story so please comment if you like so I can get better at this.

Helos Medical Institute looked like any other hospital in the galaxy. Maybe a little nicer looking with the park next to it, but that was about it. Yet he was nervous as hell to go in, "Shit, Vakarian, why the hell are you so nervous? She will be happy to see me…I think," Garrus pondered.

It had been more than a year or two since he last saw her and a lot of stuff had happen since then. After saving the galaxy with Shepard he went back to C-Sec with a renew sense of purpose. It was going well until he got the news of Shepard's death and it just took the wind out of him. He tired to honor her by staying in C-Sec, but with everyone trashing her memory he could not take it anymore. Besides, he was getting in a lot of trouble defending his friend and it would not be long before he pissed off the wrong person. While writing the report for his last case he saw that the criminal was part of some gang in Omega. Inspired yet again he decided to go to Omega and do some good over there.

His work there gained him a squad and a new name, Archangel, but when good things happen, bad things are not far behind. In Garrus case, he was betrayed by one of his squad mates, a kind of student to him, Sidonis. This caused his squad to be murder and put him in the fight for his life. In the middle of all that chaos, he saw someone he never thought would see again, Shepard. At first he thought, he finally lost it, but after shooting her a couple of times and hearing her curse in that colorful way she does; he knew it was her. Seeing her gave him his second wind and more of a reason to stay alive. Of course, when good things happen something has to go bad and that was getting a missile to his face. He nearly died, but with Shepard, back he could not die just yet. After surviving that ordeal and gaining some battle scars, he joined his friend, Shepard in another suicide mission. After a while, he located Sidonis and tried to get revenge against him. He brought Shepard along thinking it was a good idea, but Shepard stopped him from killing him by being her stubborn self. He was a bit pissed at first, but after talking with her, he understood why she did what she did. Still it would take some time him to get used to this new world of grey.

Not long after that, Shepard graced him with her slightly drunken presence and they began talking about random stuff. Things got interesting after he told her about his tiebreaker story and sufficient to say he was shocked to find out that she has a thing for scared men. He was even more surprised at himself that he said yes to her proposition. He kind of just said the first thing that came to his mind, not really thinking that maybe Shepard was just kidding. So when she came by the main battery the next day he gave her a way to back out, but she did not take it. She wanted to be with him and nothing was going to change her mind. After that, things changed between them. At first when he was around her he got a little nervous around her and would occasionally put his foot in his mouth, but as time passed, he began to relax around her. Being with Shepard was as natural as breathing for him and he began to wonder if their relationship could become something serious. Then it was time for them to hit the Collector base. With time not on their side, he decided to come clean with his feelings. Shepard listen and with just one touch to his face, all his doubts and worries just vanished. For once, everything went right for those few moments. Not only did that go right, but their mission as well. Everyone survived with maybe a little wear and tear to them and they blew up the Collector Base as a goodbye gift to The Illusive Man.

Everything seemed to be going well, but then came Hackett's mission for Shepard. Never had Garrus been so restless while waiting for her to come back. The first few hours he was ok, then several more hours passed by, and still nothing from her. A day passed and still nothing. When the second day came, he could not take it anymore and did everything in his power to find her. Luckily, by that time she made contact with the Normandy. She managed to make it to Normandy with barely a minute to spare and they all witness a system's destruction. Shepard had told them the Reapers were only minutes away from entering that system and that she had no time to find another way to delay their arrival. All of them understood, but Shepard being Shepard still beat herself up over it. Garrus tried his best to cheer her up, and while she touched that he tried, it did not work.

Shortly after that, she turned herself in and all the crew went their separate ways to prepare for the coming of the Reapers. Garrus wanted to stay and give her support, but she convinced him to go. "I will be fine, Garrus. They will more than likely keep me under guard for a few months till we can settle what happen with the Batarians,"

"This isn't the time for this bullshit. The Reapers are on our doorstep and I don't think they are going to wait for us to open the door for them,"

"True, when you have weapons that can destroy whole fleets in minutes and can control minds you really don't have to wait on anything do you,"

"We are going to have a lot of disadvantages when they come. A lot of lives are going to be lost because everyone who can do something about it is sticking their heads in the sand and hoping the crazy woman that is screaming, 'THE REAPERS ARE COMING!' goes away,"

Shepard could not help, but laugh, "I am assuming that I am the crazy woman, correct?"

"The one and only, although maybe Jack can give you a run for your money," Shepard punched him on his shoulder. "Hey, I was just kidding, Shepard,"

"Sure you were, Vakarian," she smiled. It had been a while since he saw her really smile. "Still you are right that we are not in the best situation now. I think at most I gave everyone a few more months to prepare for war, but,"

"We will all do are best, Shepard. Everyone who supports you know what is at stake and we will be damn to let all your effort to stop the Reaper go to waste," Garrus grabbed her hand and gently squeezed it. Shepard returned the gesture and put her head on his shoulder. They stood there for a minute just being content with each other's presence.

Shepard was the first to notice a couple of soldiers coming toward them, "Guess my time is up," Garrus looked toward their direction, giving them a glare that would freeze hell itself. Shepard notice and nudged him in the ribs, "Don't be mad at them. They are only doing their job,"

"I understand that, but it still doesn't mean I have to like it," he eyed the Normandy. "You know we could…"

"No,"

"Oh come on Shepard, just like old times,"

"No," Garrus was a little disappointed to say the least. Shepard gently put her hand on his scared side of his face. "As much as I would like to ditch this place and 'borrow' the Normandy again; we have to play this one by the book. Besides Garrus, you have an important job to do,"

He arched his eyebrow plates in confusion, "I do?"

"Yup, it's your turn to be the crazy one screaming, 'THE REAPERS ARE COMING!' I am pretty sure you will get more attention than me with that voice of yours,"

"What is so special about my voice?" Shepard let out a small grunt. "What was that about?"

"Garrus, you could read a damn dictionary and make it sound both interesting and sexy. Hell I would have gotten better grades in school if my teachers sounded as half as good as you," Garrus could not help, but chuckled. Shepard then kissed him on his scared cheek. "Gotta go," He wanted to grabbed her and really kiss her goodbye, but he thought it might be inappropriate with all the Alliance soldiers around.

"Shepard," she stopped and turn around, "try not to cause too much trouble while you are here. I won't be here to save your ass, you know,"

She chuckled, "You know I can say the same to you, Vakarian. How many times have I pulled your ass out of the fire?"

"Not nearly as many times as I have for you. Besides that is the real reason why you always bring me to every mission you go on. No one can save your ass like I can," Garrus had an impish look to him, which Shepard was not going to have. Shepard walked back to him, she swagger those hips of hers more than Garrus was comfortable with and got up to his face.

"I'll admit you defiantly have an impressive 'reach' in the battlefield. Enough to take a headshot or two away from me," Garrus was about to say something, but Shepard shushed him and got a little closer to him, "but I am the more 'flexible' one with my long and short range moves, it gives me quite the edge in battle as you know and then there is sniping any of the one you miss,"

"That I miss?" Garrus retorted.

"Ok, the one I get by distracting you with my body, Vakarian, happy?"

"If that is what you call pushing me out of the way to take the shot sure, I am happy,"

"It's called saving your butt from the all the killer bullets. Since this Turian," she lifted his chin a bit, "does not know how to duck,"

Garrus narrowed his eyes at her, "Turians don't need-"

"Commander," one of the soldiers interrupted, "we really should be going now,"

Both Garrus and Shepard were not too pleased for the interruption, but she replied, "Just give me a minute, soldier," The soldier quickly went back to the other stockier soldier. "Man, what a way to kill the mood," Garrus nodded in agreement. Shepard pulled his head down so that they were touching forehead to forehead. "How about we settle this once and for all once I get out of here?"

"I'm game what is the challenge going to be this time?"

"How about whoever takes down the most Reapers wins?" she replied.

"Fine by me, finally get to one-shot kill one with my baby," Garrus looked at the Normandy's Thanix Gun.

"Oh no, that is my baby, Vakarian,"

"Sure you captain the ship, Shepard, but that gun is all mine. I did the upgrades, keep it clean, and calibrate it every day. So by all rights it is my gun and any kills that gun does are mine,"

"As you said before I am the captain of that ship and thus everything that is the Normandy is mine. Plus I remember helping you with that gun sometimes so there is another reason why that gun should be mine," she argued.

"Sure, if you consider distracting me help, then I will agree with you on that point," he countered.

"I did not hear you complain about my 'distractions', Vakarian. In fact I remember how much you loved my little distractions. You were quite vocal about it,"

"Shepard,"

"Garrus,"

Both were dead set in have the Thanix gun on their side and so it was no surprise they came up with the same conclusion. "Tiebreaker," the both of them said at the same time. They nodded in agreement. Shepard, turn around to leave, but Garrus pulled her back into his embrace.

"I hope to see you again before everything goes to hell,"

"Same here,"

"And if that doesn't happen, just stay alive, Shepard, so I can save your ass stylishly yet again,"

"Psst, in your dreams, Vakarian,"

Garrus put his mouth next to her ear and whispered, "Shepard, my dreams about you are going to be a lot more fun than the stuff we do in the battlefield," she began to blush and Garrus couldn't stop smirking. "You will be doing a lot of that in my dream as well," Shepard quickly pushed him back and tried to regain some composure.

"Damn it, Vakarian, get your ass out of here and go help save the universe from its stupidity,"

He chuckled, "All right, Shepard, I'll go and save the universe while you are here playing nice. Just don't blame me when you have nothing to shoot at, because a certain Turian single handily took care of the Reapers with one shot,"

Shepard narrowed her eyes, "When I get out I am going to have to knock down that ego of yours a bit,"

"I am sure you will do more than that, Shepard," she turned around quickly and walked off with her escorts. Garrus was pleased that he got under her skin. It was quickly becoming his new favorite thing to do with Shepard as were other things. Still with Shepard gone, the world seemed a little duller somehow to him. Therefore, to distract that feeling he began his plan of attack to help prepare the universe for the coming invasion.

First, he went to Citadel and hoped that all the information that he gather up till now would finally open the council's eyes. It was no big surprise that they brushed him off. He was not one to give up so easily and stayed there for about two week. With time not on his side, he decided to try to get some help from someone he never thought to go to, his father. Highly respected by several high officials in both the Citadel and Palaven, it was worth a shot. So, he prepared himself to go to Palaven to meet his father.

As he was packing up his things he came upon his good luck charm, an old amulet that had nicks and cracks everywhere on it. It was a gift from his mother when he first joined the military. He remembered trying to give it back to her since he knew how much it meant to her, but she insisted he keep it. Saying that a little luck could not hurt keep the bullets away. So he kept it and tried to keep it in good shape, but the thing kept getting more scratches and dents that he was afraid it would break at any moment. He put it away in a small box for a while and somewhat forgot about it. Still every time he packed, he remembered to bring it, but never took it out of the box. That was until whole Omega fiasco. Everyone was dead and he was going upstairs to make his last stand when he saw the box. He could not remember ever taking the box out of his bag, but there it was. Needing a little luck on his side he took the thing out and put it in his pocket. Sufficient to say that little bit of luck helped him survive days of the mercenary's onslaught, and brought Shepard back to him. Still luck can only get you so far and a missile is not a bullet. So the amulet did its job until that point. "It has been a long time since I last saw her and Sol said she wasn't doing too well," he quickly made up his mind and booked a flight to Sur'kesh where she was staying at Helos Medical Institute for treatment.

Now he was inside the institute, walking down a very long hallway or what felt like a very long hallway. As he was walking down the hallway he mentally checked off each room he passed, 523, 525, 527, 529 his mother's room number. He was finally there and all he had to do was open the door. A very simple thing to do, but Garrus did not know what to expect or what to say. It had been a long time since he has seen her in person and he felt like a bad son for not coming to see her sooner or talk with her more on vid chat. He was beginning to have doubts when a very familiar voice came from behind him, "Garrus, the door does not open unless you push the big holographic button that is right in front of you or have you hit your head one too many times and forgot what a button looks like,"

Garrus let out a heavy sigh, "Still the smartass I see. Nice to know some things never change," He turned around and looked down at his little sister, Solana.

"Sprits, what the hell happen to your face?" she exclaimed.

Garrus just shook his head, "Hello to you too, Sol,"

She took a step back and apologized, "Sorry, but can you blame me? Last time we saw each other…well you defiantly did not have this," she poked at his bandage, "nor did you tell me about it last time we talked. So I am completely within my rights to freak out a little at seeing your face," Family, they can be supportive at times and the rest of the time they can kick you in the plates with no remorse.

"Thanks for calling me ugly, Sol,"

"Hey, that's not what I meant," she blurted out. "It was just that I was surprise that's all. Which I am pretty sure is going to be mom's and dad's reaction when you go through that door," He was not expecting his father to be there and was now even more nervous to go in.

"Dad's here?"

"Of course, he visits every chance he gets. He is spending the week here before he goes back to Palaven,"

"I see," It seemed to Garrus that caught a lucky break, but he was not ready to face his father just yet. He did not have his customary shot of brandy that he takes before any meeting with his father.

Solana grabbed a hold of her brother's arm, "Come on time for the prodigal son to finally return to his family," she opened the door and dragged him in. "Hey everybody, guess what I found just right outside the door," She pushed him toward the bed and he fumbled a bit.

"Hey, mom," he nodded at her, "dad," and nodded at him as well.

"Garrus," replied his dad.

His mother slowly lifted herself up to a sitting position. His father tried to help her up, but she gave him that look that said, 'I can do this myself.' "So how was hell? Is it still how I remember it?"

"If it is getting shot from every direction and things blowing up all around you then nothing changed,"

She laughed, "Good to know some things don't change and Garrus,"

"Yeah,"

"It is really good to see you again,"

All of his nervous just melted away when she smiled, "Yeah, mom, it is really good to see you too,"


	2. The Picture

Garrus went to his mom and hugged her. She motion to him to sit next to her on the bed. He did, but was very careful not to step on any tubes or anything else that looked important. Solana took her place on the other side of the bed, and his father stood next to the window. "So how are you doing, mom?" Garrus asked.

"Well I am as good enough as I can be, Garrus. My legs are useless now, can't feel anything down there anymore. My right arm is starting to follow suit. The shaking is not as bad though. The treatments have been keeping that in check so far. Everything above my neck seems to be fine though, which is a damn miracle. I guess even a disease like Corpalis can't keep my mouth shut," she joked.

"I don't think there is anything out there to keep you down, mom," he noticed that her left hand was starting to shake and so he held her hand to hide it. "If there was one then well we will all be screwed then,"

She laughed, "True. So Garrus, how have you been really? I see that you went through some facial reconstruction on your little pleasure cruise. I am sure a lot of women are just throwing themselves at you, especially Korgan women,"

"Mom," he moaned.

"Well Garrus, do I have a Korgan daughter-in-law or what?"

He sighed, "Sorry to burst your bubble, mom, but there have been no women throwing themselves at me," well there was drunk Shepard he thought. It took everything he had not to smile at the thought, "not even a female Korgan. Although she will charging at me instead of throwing herself at me if you think about it,"

"Very true, plus you would be limping all the time with a Korgan girlfriend,"

"Eww, mother, that is just gross!" Solana squeaked.

Their mother rolled her eyes, "Solana, get your mind out of the gutter,"

"Well what should I think when you say something like that," Solana retorted.

"How about a Korgan charging at you would hurt. You can't just walk away from one of those without a couple of broken ribs and a limp. Sprits, I wonder how our youngest got such a dirty mind, Alnus?"

He shrugged, "I have no idea, Radna, but it is obvious that she did not get it from me. Since how did you put it, 'You can't crack a joke or do anything dirty to save your ass' end quote."

Radna smirked, "And if I remember right by the end of that night I actually got you to do one of those things," Alnus lowered his head in embarrassment.

"Oh dear sprits," both Garrus and Solana moaned.

"Geez, you two, grow up. I did not mean it that way!"

"So you are telling us that you actually got him to tell a joke?" questioned Garrus.

"Yes, a really bad one, but still I laughed at the joke. Well actually, I laughed at him mostly since he had the most serious face when he was telling the joke. Still he has gotten better over the years and now he can tell a decent joke," All of them were looking at him expecting him to tell a joke.

"Yeah, it not going to happen," he responded.

"Oh come on, Al. Tell them the first joke you told me," Radna pleaded.

"And go through that embarrassment again; I do not think so,"

"That joke did win my heart, Alnus. This in turn made the decision to marry you a lot easier and to have your children. So I think is only fair that they hear the joke that started this family," Radna elaborated.

Alnus grumbled and then said, "How about I go out and get us some decent food to celebrate our son's return?"

"Sure, but you are still going to tell the joke," she added.

He just shook his head in defeat, "Maybe, Solana, come on you are going to help with the food,"

"Aww, dad can't I stay here with mom and Garrus?" she complained.

"No, I going to need help carrying all the food in and with only two hands on me I need an extra pair with me," Solana was about to argue some more, but then realize what her dad was doing.

"Ok, I'll go," she walked out the door with Alnus, but not before saying, "You better not tell any of the good stories while I am away, Garrus or else,"

"She hasn't changed much, has she," Garrus noted.

She mused on the idea, "She has changed more than you think, but to you Garrus, she will never change. That's how brothers and sisters are, especially big brother and little sisters," He agreed with her. No matter how old she gets, Solana would always be his bratty, smartass, sometimes cute, sister. "So Garrus, or should I call you by your secret identity, Archangel?"

That took him aback, "What, how…dad?"

"No, I was just bored and was browsing through the news. I found the Archangel story interesting and was curious on who he was. Did not take me long to connect the dots," she proclaimed.

"Really?" He did not put much effort into keeping his identity a secret when he was Archangel, but still not many people figure out it was him.

"Sure, anyone who knows you Garrus would figure it out in a minute. I mean a mysterious vigilante who wears blue and black, takes down the big bad mercs with a sniper rifle with amazing aim. Skilled in hand-to-hand combat, has been known to wear a kuwashii visor, which cost quite a bit by the way. Last but not least wears a symbol that looks an awful like the one I used to wear back in my military days," He did take the design from his mother's past, but he thought he tweaked enough for it not be associated with his mother's symbol.

"I guess I didn't tweak it enough,"

"No, you did, but I am your mother, Garrus and that is enough said," it was true. There was not much that got past Radna Vakarian, which was especially true when it came to her kids. "You had me worried though when I heard Archangel was killed, but there were a lot of rumors of you still being alive so I held on to that for a while. Then as I was browsing through the news again I saw a clip of Commander Shepard punching some news reporter and guess who I saw in the background," she smiled.

"I thought I got out of the way," he confessed.

"You did, but you were in the clip for a couple of seconds. Have to say though that clip made my week. Not, because I found out you were still alive, but the way your Commander knocked that reporter off her ass. It was priceless. Showed the clip to your father and Sol, Sol liked it, your father well he was unimpressed with the whole thing,"

"Well that is one up from disappointed. I guess he doesn't like reporters as well,"

"Some he likes, most of them well he wouldn't mind if your Commander punched them all," Garrus chuckled. The thought of Shepard punching every annoying reporter in the universe just fit her character so well and made him miss her a little more. "The Commander how is she?"

"She is ok, I think,"

"You think?"

"Yeah, she is currently being detained back on Earth for destroying a mass relay. None of the Normandy crew can speak with her until things settle down with that situation. It has been a few weeks now, but I am pretty sure she is ok, she has Anderson on her side and she saved us from Saren, the Geth, the Collectors, and a Reaper so that should earn her some points as well,"

"Do you miss her?"

"Yeah, I do, the galaxy is not as fun with Lenneth not around,"

"Lenneth, so you two are on first name bases?" he did not realize it, but he just said Shepard's first name aloud in front of his mother. Saying her first name meant that they were close and you can tell how close by the way you said their name. He obviously said her name with affection; he could not hide that. He tried to find a way out of the hole he just dug, but he could not see a way out. Garrus did not know how any of his family would take him dating a human out of all things, especially his parents who fought in the Relay 314 Incident. Still this was mom the more open minded of the two. "Garrus, it is all right that you are dating her,"

This surprised him, "You really ok with me dating a human?"

"Honestly Garrus, I don't care about her being human or not. As long as she makes you happy, then I am happy. She does make you happy, right?"

"Yeah, defiantly, how could I not be happy with her around," that made his mother beam with happiness.

"What is it with Vakarian men and making cute little comments like that? It just makes everyone love you more," Garrus did not know how to respond. He just spoke out the first thing that came into his mind. He remembered Shepard saying something similar to him, but brushed it off by saying she had a little too much wine. Which prompt Shepard to get creative with the wine and let us just say she really got creative with it.

"I guess I will take your word on that, mom," Garrus fumbled through his left pocket and took out a badly wrapped gift. "A little present for you, mom,"

"Nice to see that your wrapping skills have improved," she open the gift and in the box was the amulet that she gave him all those years ago. "Garrus, why are you giving this back to me? This is yours now, not mine,"

"I figure you need a little more luck than I do. Since you told me of all the times it saved your butt I figure it could save you one more time," Radna looked at him with such love and pride that a couple of tears escaped her eyes. "Crap, mom, I'm sorry did I say something wrong?" She used all her strength to pull him down to give him the tightest hug that she could give him.

"You did not say anything wrong. I am just so proud to have the sweetest and most thoughtful son than any mother has had," she let go of him. "Still I cannot accept this," she carefully put it back in his hands. "It cannot help me anymore, but I know it is still helping you. Knowing that is more than enough for me," Garrus was a little bum that she did not accept his gift, but he understood somewhat on her reason why. He guess that he had to be a parent to really understand it all.

He did not notice until now, but there were a bunch of pictures of the family on a table next to her bed. He got up to look at them and remember each moment of each picture. There was one picture of the hiking trip they took at Hannos. Garrus and his mom posed for the picture, but in the background, you could see Alnus falling into a puddle with a 5-year-old Solana laughing her butt off. Next to that was a picture of Garrus teasing Solana with a slimy, spongy type of sea creature to her face. Fun times, Garrus thought. As he was looking at the rest of them, he notices the one at the far end of the table he did not recognize. As he got closer to it, he was shocked to see it was a picture of a human woman in black and purple armor with a yellow scarf standing at some beach. He picked it up and showed it to his mom. "Who is this?"

His mother chuckled, "A very old friend who got in more than her share of trouble,"

"You never told me that you had any human friends, mom. Why keep her a secret?"

She sighed, "There are a couple reasons for that. One your father did not you kids to be influence by her 'wicked' ways,"

"Dad, knows about her?"

"Of course he does, we both met her at the same time. Yet, we both have very different experiences when it comes to her. I liked her, but your father; well let us just say she scared him for life. Actually she was part of the reason he went to C-Sec, but that is beside the point," that peaked his interest in the woman a bit more. Still something, about her was bugging him and he could not pin it down. "Would you like to know her name?" Radna asked.

"Yeah, if you don't mind,"

She smiled, "I do not mind at all. Her name was Alexis Shepard,"


	3. The Routine Mission

"Her last name was Shepard?" exclaimed Garrus. He could not believe his ears; his parents also had a Shepard in their lives as well. He wondered if his Shepard and their Shepard could be related somehow. "What a small universe would that be?" he thought.

"Yes, it was Shepard and I bet you are wondering if she is related to your Shepard," his mother noted.

"It's kind of hard not to think that. I know Shepard is a common last name in human society, but wouldn't it be kind of funny to know that we have dealt with the same Shepard family for two generations and not know it," the both of them laughed.

"It would be a little funny, but I don't know, Garrus, it would be a big stretch for our Shepard's to be connected. My Shepard never talked about having any family or having any kids, but then again she kept a lot of her personal life to herself. I found that odd since she liked to talk as much as I do,"

Garrus asked, "You don't have a better picture of her?"

She laughed out loud, "I was lucky I even got that picture. She was very weary of having her picture taken. She said something about getting part of your soul stolen away from the camera or something crazy like that," Garrus's Shepard was the complete opposite. She loved to take pictures of almost every little thing and even on a couple mission she would take a minute to take a picture of something that catch her attention. He asked her about it once, which she replied, you never know when they will be gone. The way she said it made him feel like there was more to the story, but he did not push it.

Garrus decided to ask another question, "Do remember how she looked?"

"It has been almost thirty years since I last saw her, but if you are thinking of showing me a picture of your girlfriend and comparing it to my memory of my Shepard then I wouldn't mind it all," she grinned.

Garrus looked through his omni-tool and found a picture of them on their first date. They had some time to kill on Illium and thought it would be a perfect chance to go out as a couple. It was supposed to be a simple dinner, but somehow that simple dinner turned into an all out war. He remember throwing a Volus, overloading a few shields, Shepard incinerating them, a lot of shooting, and his shirt being torn to pieces by Varren. They tried to salvage their date by getting a couple of drinks on the Normandy, but a couple of drinks quickly turn into a couple of bottles. Sufficient to say, their first date was memorable even though they don't remember most it at all. Still they got a good picture out of it.

"Here is the best picture I have of her," he showed her the picture. He had hoped to see some kind of facial cue on his mother's face, but she shown none.

It was a good couple of minutes before she said anything, "Their hair color is the same and their eyes are very similar as well. Hard to forget those rich blue eyes," He remembered her talking about her family situation way back on the first Normandy. Raised by her mother, never knew her father, and had no brothers or sisters. She became an orphan at the age of five when her mother died in some kind of freak car accident. "But that is all I really see of my old friend," his mother concluded.

"Oh," he mumbled.

"This is important to you, Garrus, why?" she asked. He really couldn't explain it himself. It was just important to him. "Stumped you?"

He took a minute to respond, "Not exactly, but I do know that is important to me…and Shepard,"

"Why, Shepard?"

"Shepard doesn't have a lot of fond memories of her past, except those with her mother. Still she does not know too much about her or even have one memento of her anymore," he paused for a moment then continued. "If I can give her back something of the better part of her past then it would make her happy and she deserves that,"

She smiled, "Garrus are you saying what I think you are saying?"

"It's a hutch, but I think she is Shepard's mother," The more he looked at the picture the more he was convinced that it was Shepard's mother. He felt like he was grasping at straws, but that nagging feeling was not going away. This only meant that there was a connection there, but he was not seeing it.

"What was Shepard's mother's name?"

"Lexis, I think, but I think I may have misheard her. I was working with some heavy equipment at the time,"

Radna looked at both of the pictures again and sighed. "Well maybe they don't share much in physical appearance, but maybe their personalities could be similar. If she did had a daughter I am pretty sure some of Alex would rubbed off on her daughter,"

It was something, and maybe he could figure out what he was missing, "So what was she like?"

"How about I tell you the story of how I met her?"

"Yeah, alright, I am curious how you and dad met her,"

"Ok, it was about thirty years ago, just after the Relay 314 Incident. Your father and I were part of routine scouting mission,"

"Another scouting mission," Radna complained, "can't they give us something better to do? We did fight at the Relay Incident, so they can give us something better to do,"

"It was called the Relay 314 Incident, Garethus," Alnus corrected her. "Humans have dubbed it, The First Contact War. Either way you call it, it does not change the fact that we only fought in one battle during that war,"

Radna first met Alnus during that one battle he mentioned. She was in the front lines doing some damage when the enemy flanked them. She held her own for a while, but an enemy caught her by surprise. She knew she could not react fast enough to stop him from killing her, but then she did not have to. The minute she thought that there was a bullet between the human's head. A couple more humans appeared and the same thing happen, a bullet to each of their heads.

"Would you get your ass moving?" she heard on her headset. "I am good, but I have others to save besides you,"

"Then save them, I can take care of myself!" she yelled.

"That was not the case a couple of minutes ago," he replied.

"Shut up, I could have handled them, solider. You just did not give me a chance to," she retorted.

He ignored her, "I highly suggest throwing a grenade to your eleven and then going a few feet west for better cover. I will back you up till then," she complied, but she was not done arguing him.

After they won the battle she went out to find her mysterious savior, but he found her instead. She was surprised to see it was Alnus Vakarian, a soldier who just recently graduated at the top of his class and was rumored to be one hell of a sniper. He complement her on holding on as long as she did alone, but quickly berated her with all the things she did wrong. Radna could take that from her superiors, but Alnus was just another solider like her.

So she did what any pissed off Turian would do, she challenge him to the ring. He accepted and it seemed to her that this was nothing new to him. After fifteen rounds, she managed to win, but not before getting some plates cracked and getting a few black and blue spots. Alnus was only a little worse off than her. The only permanent injury he had was the cracking of his forehead plate which looked like a big X.

Since then they have been stuck together in just about every mission they got. Neither was thrilled with each other's company, but each respected each other's skills in the battlefield. They were gaining a reputation of how well they worked on the battlefield, and how well they did not off the battlefield. Thus they gain the nickname, fire and ice; a firestorm in battle and icy bitches off the battlefield. They had another nickname, the old married couple, but they quickly got rid of that nickname.

"So what, Vakarian, we did still fought in that war and won that battle," Radna pointed out.

"Still it was just one battle, Gathethus. You cannot really expect us to get any dangerous mission just, because we survive one battle in wartime. Especially since we have only really started our military career," Radna knew he was speaking the truth, but it really did not matter to her. She tasted what a real battle was like and all these small battle were doing nothing for her appetite for battle. She needed to be in a big battle and the sooner the better.

"Vakarian, you are as dull as this wall here. If you are not going to say anything interesting then don't say anything at all," Alnus ignored her. Radna wished that one of her comments would get to him just to see if he had any other facial reactions beside stoic, but it was a losing battle. "Well anything out there, Jacinth?" Jacinth was there pilot today. Radna liked him since he could take her bull crap and throw it right back at her.

"Maybe, I am seeing on the radar three ships that are close together. The big one has no life support and almost no power in it. Yet there seems to be a lot of activity going on in that one. The other two I cannot get any kind of info on them. So you know what that means,"

"Scavengers then," she suggested.

"More than likely, but,"

"But?" she repeated.

"I have a bad feeling about this. Something is not right here," he noted. Radna knew to take Jacinth feeling seriously since he was right most of the time when it came to that type of thing. Another thing she liked about him, he was her own personal danger radar.

"Well, Jacinth, we are a scouting party and I believe our mission parameters are to scout anything odd or suspicious,"

"Please, Ra, I know what our mission is and as much as I like to back off from this one we will go check it out. So stop grinning like an idiot and get ready. You too, Vakarian, I know the Captain will want to take both of you to check out that ship. He can't seem to get enough of you two," he noted.

"It's because he know we are the best, Jacinth," Radna replied with confidence.

He snorted, "Sure, tell yourself that, Ra. Now go while I tell the Captain about this,"

It only took ten minutes for everyone to get ready. Captain Leobis choose to bring five people with him: Alnus, Cassia, Munries, Radna, and Strix. They entered the broken down ship and began investigating the area. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary and the ship's logs held nothing that could tell them what went wrong. This was strange since the ship showed no signs of being damage on the outside so it had to be something in the inside, which the logs should have recorded.

The Captain sent out Alnus, Cassia and Strix to check out the rest of the area while the rest stayed back to get the power back on and figure out what happen. Radna was getting twitchy which the Captain notice, "What's wrong, Radna?"

"Just wondering where everyone is, sir," she answered. "I find it strange that we have not seen any enemies, sir,"

"Same here, Jacinth said there was a lot of activity here, but we have yet to see any of that activity. You would think that they would have some kind lookout on this floor, yet there is none. Which makes me think both ships personnel are really dumb or really confidant. I think you know what I am hoping for," Radna did not want to deal with dumb criminals since they provide no challenge. So she hoped that they were just over confidant in their abilities and just made a stupid move by not leaving scouts on the docking level.

"Captain Leobis," Alnus announced over the Captain's headset.

"Did your group find something, Alnus?"

"Yes sir, a group of five human bodies, lightly armored. Three were killed by bullets and the other two by knife wounds it seems,"

"Humans, well that is something. Wonder what they are doing here this far in Turian space?" The Captain asked. "What about the crew? Have you found them?"

"Found them all dead in a room next to us, sir," Alnus replied. The Captain cursed and took a moment to think of what to do next.

"Munries, how much longer till you get the ship back to full power?"

"Not much longer, sir. Just waiting for Radna, to get her head out of her ass, sir," he answered.

"Oh, you're finally done. I was going to do a quick game of that new game, Solitaire. It's a good game to play when you are bored as hell or waiting for certain slow engineers to finally get their part done," Munries was about to comment back, but the Captain cleared his throat and that was the end of that. The both of them did their thing and the power was back on. They figure out that everyone was on the bottom floor where everything was stored. The Captain decided to send Alnus group through the vents and to take the elevator down with Radna. He left Munries to use the ship's computers to back them up.

The elevator ride was extremely slow for Radna. Her body was utterly restless and was itching for some fighting. "You're more restless than usual, Radna. Care to explain?"

"This elevator is going fricken slow, sir,"

He softly chuckled, "I believe every elevator in the universe is slow, Radna, but no that is not it. Something else is bugging you,"

She took a moment to think about it and replied, "Things are not adding up, sir. Like why turn off the power when the crew is already dead? Or why humans are this far in Turian space even if they are scavengers? Also that small ship bugs me,"

"How so?"

"Well the other ship looks like it carries maybe a crew of fifteen, but that other one looks like it carries one, maybe three at the most. If I am right then it was one person that killed that group of five and has no problems dealing with a large group of enemies,"

The Captain took a moment to take it all in. Then he said, "I bet you think that one has all the answers we need," she nodded. "Well let's try to capture that one alive then,"

"Yes, sir,"

He nodded, "Radna, you may have a mouth on you, but your analytical skills are quite something else. I believe you can go very far in the world, but you need to learn to play nice every once in a while,"

"Sir, can you really see me play nice?"

"No," he admitted, "but still I can hope can I not?"

Radna smiled, "Sir, you have a better chance hoping for me to get along with Vakarian then me playing nice,"

"You never know, Radna. With each new day we change a little, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. So maybe one day you will be…friends with Alnus,"

She laughed, "If that EVER happens, sir, then sure I will play a little nicer with everyone,"

"Wanna shake on it?" he held out his hand. Radna took a moment to look at him then she shook his hand. "Ok then now let's take our positions. We are almost there,"

They each took a side of the elevator. When the elevator doors open they were surprise to see more dead bodies. "Looks like they were all shot to death, sir," Radna observed. The Captain nodded his head to look behind her. "Oh, and one with baton through his head. Not exactly the way I would want to go,"

"How would you want to go, Radna?" he asked as he checked out the bodies. She never really thought about it. She thought of maybe going out with a boom, but then she thought of dying peacefully in bed. Dying peacefully in bed did sound nice to her, but it did not seem like the way she would go. "I guess you need more time to think about it, but now is not the time," The Captain interrupted. "Come on let's go,"

They took a couple more steps toward the end of the hallway when Radna heard a small beeping noise. She stopped and looked around to find the source, but could not see where it was coming from. "Sir, stop!" he stopped and was about to ask her why she asked him to stop when he heard the beeping as well.

Then it stopped and the bomb exploded.


End file.
